Riyadh, The Ministerial Committee for Posts and Telecommunications in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries held its 27th meeting here today.
The meeting was chaired by Saeed bin Hamoud Al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology of the Sultanate of Oman, Chairman of the current session, and in the presence of Majid Sultan Al Mesmar, Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Thamer Al Kaabi, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the State of Qatar, and Omar Saud Al Omar, Board Chairman of the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority of the State of Kuwait, with the participation of. Jassem Mohamed Albudaiwi, Secretary General of the GCC.
At the outset of the meeting, the members of the Committee congratulated Albudaiwi on the assumption of his duties as Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, wishing him success in his tasks, in line with the directives of Their Majesties and Highnesses the leaders of the GCC states.
During the meeting, several topics related to the common aspects between the GCC countries were discussed for cooperation in the postal and telecommunications sectors, including the adoption of the guiding framework for the protection of personal information of GCC citizens, the adoption of an action plan for the telecommunications sector in the GCC countries, and the launch of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s initiative for the Research Award for Technology and Digital Economy Foresight. The meeting also approved the unified system (law) regulating the activity of companies and private institutions working in the field of express mail and packages.
On the occasion, the Secretary General delivered a speech in which he emphasised the role of the Committee since its inception in achieving outstanding accomplishments in the fields of post and telecommunications. He also affirmed that this reflects the keenness and interest of the members of the Committee in this sector and their strong belief in the great goals that will benefit the economy of the GCC countries through a solid postal and communications sector, in a way that contributes to increasing the public and private sectors’ productivity, improving its efficiency, increasing the return on investments, and providing better and easier services for citizens and the business sector. He also underlined that the Committee work comes in line with the efforts exerted to achieve the aspirations of Their Majesties and Highnesses the leaders of the GCC states to push the Gulf entity towards higher, more developed and advanced ranks.
The GCC chief congratulated the GCC countries for their qualitative leap in the field of digital economy and achieving advanced ranks in the communication and information technology sector’s global indexes, in the areas of network readiness, competitiveness, progress, digital entrepreneurship, the tremendous development in fifth-generation networks, and the speed and coverage of the Internet, in addition to the milestones achieved in the field of digital skills development and all other fields.
In the same context, the Committee discussed the latest developments related to the reduction of roaming service charges in the GCC countries, the reports of the GCC states regarding developments in communication with major companies that provide Internet services and applications, the telecommunications sector’s indicators, analysis and monitoring of the GCC telecom markets, in addition to the coordination between the GCC countries with respect to the overlapping of mobile phone networks with the radio services in the GCC countries.
The meeting concluded with the approval of the Sultanate of Oman’s proposal to re-study the functions and competencies of the Ministerial Committee for Posts and Telecommunications.
Source: Bahrain News Agency
